Storms Flood Parts Of Bruce

Tuesday is June 25, which is exactly six months until Christmas. If you drive in the Bruce area, you will see LaDonna Marlette's yard is littered with yuletide decorations. But despite the Santa resting on her grill, she is not celebrating early.

"We saw the water in the cellar," Marlette said. "It had to be at least five feet."

Like many of us, Marlette stored her holiday decorations downstairs. As they dry out, she and her husband are still trying to pump out the water that flooded her basement, four days after the storms.

"Our neighbor, that we bought the house from, he grew up in the house, and he has never seen water in the house before. There may have been water in the fields, but not in the yard before," Marlette said.

Marlette lives in the country, but you can find hoses funneling water from basements all over town, as many homeowners are pumping out flood water. In the fields, farmers are dealing with mini lakes taking over their crops. The sight is the exact opposite of last summer's drought dilemma.

The Big Sioux River is swollen, flooding many ditches and culverts. During the last few days, water has crept up on some roads.

"If the water stays like this, and keeps rushing across, it'll make a pretty good hole in the road," Richard Stokes, Bruce City Maintenance, said.

Stokes closed one washed out gravel road on Tuesday. He expects to re-open it this weekend. Stokes said shutting it down is not the main issue; the real problem is finding what could be an extra $5,000 to replace the gravel.

"Sometimes it just stays closed. So, a few years ago, when it flooded, I think it was probably closed for the summer," Stokes said.

Though the past few days have been a bumpy road for Marlette, she said despite the flood problems and soggy decorations, she and her family will stick around to celebrate a few more Christmases in her house.

"We've been going through a lot of emotions and just, I guess we look at it as it could be worse. We've seen the damage at Poinsett and the people going through that. We just have water," Marlette said.